It is known that retail and wholesale stores, such as drug stores, grocery stores, discount stores, toy stores, and the like require a large amount of shelving both to store product and to display the product to consumers. In displaying product, it is desirable for the product on the shelves to be situated toward the front of the shelf so that the product is visible and accessible to consumers. To accomplish this placement of product, known systems include the use of gravity or a pusher system to push the product toward the front of the shelf as the product at the front of the shelf is removed. Known systems also use dividing panels or dividers to separate product on the shelf to provide better organization of the product and to make the display of the product more appealing to consumers. Known merchandising systems that incorporate the use of pusher mechanisms can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,720 to Hardy and U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,201 to Breslow, and application PCT/US02/15760, all of which are assigned to RTC Industries, Inc and are incorporated in this application.
Known merchandising systems that use pusher mechanisms require multiple components including pusher paddles configured to operatively engage a track in a base wall, and biasing elements to urge the pusher paddles and accompanying product toward the front of the shelf. While these known systems have been mostly effective, there is continuously a need in the art for more cost effective and less complex merchandising systems.
The present invention is directed at improving upon existing merchandising systems.